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Commandments

Threat advisory: Low - Low risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Seth Warner (Aidan Quinn) is a good, decent man. He has a happy life. A perfect life. And then something terrible happens. An unspeakable tragedy. And that tragedy is followed by another tragedy. And another. And another.

Seth begins to believe that he is, for some reason, the target of god's wrath. How does a mortal man get back at the almighty? He takes the commandments and throws them back in god's face. God has screwed with him so he will screw with god.

Seth Warner is about to prove to the universe that when you have nothing left to lose, you finally have the strength to risk it all.

Persons of interest

Aidan Quinn .... Seth Warner
Courteney Cox .... Rachel Luce
Anthony LaPaglia .... Harry Luce
Shirl Bernheim .... Sylvia Andrew
Pamela Gray .... Melissa Murphy
Joanna Going .... Karen Warner
Louis Zorich .... Rudy Warner
Scott Sowers .... Detective Malhoney
Daniel Taplitz .... Screenwriter
Daniel Taplitz .... Director

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

What a piece of unmitigated, unadulterated, unequivocated rectal expulsion.

I will tell you the plot since you wouldn't want to have to sit through it yourself. Seth's beautiful pregnant wife mysteriously drowns. Then his house is the only one in New York to be destroyed by a freak tornado. Then he loses his job because his boss's heart is hardened. Then he goes onto the roof of his apartment building to ask the Christian god "Why?" and is struck by lightning. His dog is also hit and loses the use of one leg. Seth decides to break all the commandments, which he does, including sleeping with his late wife's sister (Courtney), getting her pregnant and sending his brother-in-law (Anthony) to jail. Then he throws himself into the sea. Where he is swallowed by a whale and lives in its stomach, only to be reunited with his sister-in-law on a sunset beach and they live happily ever after.

So the moral is: be a bastard, do whatever you want to whomever you want, break every law and the Christian god will reward you with love and joy, after killing your pregnant wife.

Commandments marks the transition for writer/director Daniel Taplitz from short films, TV and cable to features. And gee, can't you tell. It is a pastiche of clichés, hackneyed storylines, implausible events, unbelievable characters and one or two funny bits (like a dog being struck by lightning). Even worse, it's based on his own life. But maybe that's not such a surprise.

Aidan Quinn is really a TV Movie of the Week kind of actor, which in a pathetic way suits this pathetic script. Courtney does well, but it's such a dog of a movie that it's a shame to see her in it. Anthony merely makes the most of a bad situation. Don't see this movie.

Security censorship classification

Not for public release in Australia before date

Film: Undated 1999